Most people know the name Isadora Duncan, yet few could tell you what she actually did in life. So, if nothing else, this biopic does try to convey the flavour of an exceptional woman born wildly out of her time. Isadora was a free spirit, a dancer, and, if you like, a turn-of-the-century hippie. She believed in free expression and free love, and possessed an incredible magnetism which the film somehow fails to bring across, even given the benefit of Vanessa Redgrave's skilful and suitably extravagant interpretation of the title role. As a study of the lives and times of some of the more unusual inhabitants of English, French, Russian and American society in Edwardian times, however, the narrative remains gripping throughout its lengthy running time, originally more than three hours, but cut for subsequent general consumption. Jason Robards is terrific as Singer of the sewing maching family (by whom Isadora has a child) in one of the film's more amusing interludes.

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